Weekend #TwiSkiTrip to La Plagne
Last weekend some of the ski-concierge.com blogging team visited La Plagne ski resort for a #TwiSkiTrip. Ski weekends are becoming a more popular option for those who are time strapped. Traditionally ski weekends are thought to be expensive options and can sometimes cost as much as a week’s skiing. However we were aiming to prove that a ski weekend can be affordable and include nearly as much skiing as a week.
Flyng is often thought of as being the only option for a ski weekend, but in reality most cheap airlines fly to the airports that are a longer transfer time to many French Alpine resorts (i.e. Lyon or Geneva), the transfer time can often be as much as 5 hours. So this time we decided to give the train a go for our ski weekend.
We arrived at St Pancras on Wednesday night and caught the 17:55 Eurostar to Paris. With the usual Eurostar efficiency we arrived in Paris at 21:20 local time. Originally we had planned to then catch the overnight train to Bourg St Maurice which would be a really good option as all you would need to do is get the Metro or taxi to Gare d’Austerlitz and then get the overnighter at around 11pm. This would get you into resort around 8am in the morning in time for your day’s skiing.
On the local train from Chambery to Aime
However we decided to stay in Paris for the evening and catch the morning fast train. We stayed at Hotel de France in Paris which was about 5 minutes walk to Gare du Lyon. This was a basic hotel, but clean and good value. We got the train from Gare du Lyon at 6.5oam, this took us to Chambery in about 3 hours. We then took a local train to Aime La Plagne. With a pre-arranged taxi to take us up the mountain we were in La Plagne centre by 12.30.
The total cost of the train journey was less than £150 return. We stayed in the UCPA in La Plagne centre and before we knew it we’d checked in, picked up our skis and were on the piste. This was helped by the fact that the UCPA is literally on the piste in La Plagne centre. The UCPA deal is all inclusive so you don’t have to run around when you get into resort picking up lift passes and skis. The lift pass is given to you when you check in and the skis can be picked up downstairs. The total cost for 3 nights stay, 4 days skiing was £250, including all meals, lift pass and ski / snowboard hire, you really couldn’t find cheaper than that! More about the UCPA in later posts.
Photo’s © Arthur Bullard
